In an aircraft, it is known to use a cable raceway comprising a structure within which come to be housed the supported cables and further comprising a cover closing and retaining all the cables housed in the structure.
The structure is for example a structure of profiled cross-section comprising a planar base on one side of which extend longitudinal walls perpendicular to the base and parallel to each other. Together with the base, two neighboring longitudinal walls thus form a channel configured to serve as a housing for cables.
The known cable raceway structures are generally of metal. Such a cable raceway provides various functions. First of all it supports and mechanically protects cables and/or cable harnesses. Thanks to the presence of several channels, it also provides physical segregation of various cables. The cable raceway also provides thermal drainage by conduction and protection of the cables against electromagnetic interference to which they may be subjected. This last function in particular makes it possible to avoid additional shielding for the cables.
Most aircraft comprise a metallic structure which provides the return for the current transported by cables housed in the cable raceways. The aircraft of modern design increasingly use structural parts of composite material Return of the current is then no longer provided by the structure. A return for current should therefore be provided. Such a return is then provided by a distinct electrical link produced using wires or a bar of aluminum to provide for the return of the transported current. The drawback of this solution is that it increases the on-board mass of the aircraft.
Patent application FR-2 905 037 provides a cable raceway that makes it possible to keep the advantages of the cable raceways of the prior art without penalizing the mass of the aircraft. The cable raceway provided in that prior art document comprises a metallic structure of profiled cross-section having one or more housings for receiving cables. A layer of insulating material then covers the face of the cable raceway that is configured to bear on a carrying wall of the aircraft. The cable raceway described in that prior patent application is then used to provide the return of the current transported in the cables.